Drier and method



May 26, 1953 D. SIMON DRIER AND METHOD Filed Dec. 16, 1948 Patented May26, 1953 DRIER AND METHOD Donald L. Simon, Crowley, La., assignor, bydecree of distribution, to Ruth Rand Simon Application December 16,1948, Serial No. 65,548

2 Claims.

This invention relates to driers particularly adapted to the drying ofgrain such as. rice, wheat or the like.

It is an object of the invention to provide a simple apparatus whichshall be eilicient in use and nearly automatic in action.

Further objects will appear from the following description when read inconnection with the following drawing, wherein:

Figure l is a side elevation partly broken away; and Fig. 2 is atransverse section on line 22 of Fig. 1.

As shown, the device comprises a frame H desirably formed of structuralsteel, as angle irons, supporting a drying chamber ll formed with upperparallel sides and a curved bottom [2 desirably semi-cylindrical incross section.

To admit material as grain to be dried, to the drying chamber there isshown an inlet pipe l3 provided with a hopper M. The inlet pipe is shownas supported upon a cross member [5 and as being screw-threaded toengage screw threads in the cross member whereby the level of the bottomend of the feed pipe may be adjusted. The chamber H is also formed withan outlet opening it with an exterior hopper I! to receive materialflowing from the outlet. To stir material being subjected to the dryingprocess in the chamber ll, there is shown a plurality of blades 18secured to a shaft l9 shown as in the form of a heavy walled tube.Gudgeons for support of the shaft IS in bearings it at the ends of thedrying chamber are provided by the insertion of stub stafts ii in theends of the tubing l9, to be retained therein by means of set screws orthe like (not shown). The tubing I9 is substantially the same length asthe interior of the chamber and by removal of the gudgeons 2|, the shaftand blades I8 may be removed for repair and may be originally assembledwith the drying chamber in a convenient manner. The gudgeon at the leftin Fig. 1 is shown provided with a driving pulley 22.

The spout l3 desirably projects into the chamber to a positionapproximating the level of the lower edge of the outlet opening l'fi.Thus, when the blades it are revolved and the material under treatmentis violently agitated, that rising above the outer edge of the outletopening IE will flow out, thus reducing the level of the material in thechamber and allowing more material to flow from the tube [3 into thechamber thereby providing an automatic feed control. The path ofmovement of the material in the drying chamber will be of spiral form,moving from the location of the feed spout generally toward the outletopening.

To heat the material under treatment, there is shown an oven orcombustion chamber 23 which is desirably substantially as long as thedrying chamber. Housed in the chamber 23 there is diagrammatically showna burner 24 which may be of any desirable character, some form of gasburner being at present preferred. Inlets 29 for air of combustion andoutlets 3B for products of combustion are provided in the walls ofchamber 23. The lower portion of the drying chamber wall is therebyheated to conduct heat to the material under treatment thus avoidingmany well-known defects in the use of hot air drying.

To take away the moisture from the material under treatment, there isshown a section of the bottom wall of the drying chamber I l at 25 whichis formed with openings covered by screen, and air is supplied to thescreen by means of an air chamber 26 having an inlet 21 leading from asource of air pressure as a fan (not shown). Des'irably, the directionof rotation of the blades [8 is from the heated portion of the bottom ofthe chamber ll toward the air admitting portion.

The blades l8 are shown as formed with openings 28 for two reasons: oneis the air can pass through the blades when they are in a horizontalposition and will, therefore, not be blocked by the blades when in thisposition; and the second reason is for more efiicient mixing or stirringof the material. It is intended that the blades l8 shall be driven at arather high velocity, not sufiicient to throw the material out of theupper side of the chamber if left open, but rather to keep the particlesof the material in an agitated condition, somewhat similar to theboiling of a liquid.

Some of the advantages of the method of heat for drying, as grain,utilized by the invention over the use of hot air, are that when hot airis used, if excessive and harmful temperatures are to be avoided,considerably more air is required as a vehicle for the heat ofevaporation than is required to absorb and remove the moisture vaporextracted from the material under treatment. In the plan adopted by theinvention, the material is heated by conduction in and radiation fromthe heated wall of the drying chamber and the air is supplied atatmospheric temperature in amount only sufficient to remove themoisture.

It is obvious that various forms of apparatus may be utilized to carryout the method of the present invention. As an example, the plate meansto perform the function of the bottom of the container H may be fiat,elongated, and formed with imperforate heated portions and perforateportions with means to feed air through the latter. Any desired means ofproviding travel of the material may be provided as for instance themeans commonly used with shaking or inclined screens.

Such and other modifications of the physical embodiment of the apparatusmay be made, within the spirit of the invention and within the scope ofthe appended claims.

I claim:

1. The process of drying discrete material which comprises: supporting amass of the material upon a surface, which surface is imperiorate at oneportion and foraminous at another portion; heating said imperiorateportion; pass ing cool air through said foraminous portion; continuouslysweeping the lowest portion: f, the mass from said heated support tosaid foraminous support whereby to. agitate, the mass andto cause coolair to pass upward through a portion. of the entire agitated. mass. toremove vaporized moisture.

2. Drying apparatus for discrete materiaL. as.

grain, comprising, in combination: a container formed with asubstantially semi-cylindrical bottom extending axially as a continuoussemi-cylindrical surface; substantially one-half of said.

surface formed continuously imperforate; the

remaining portion of said bottom formed continuously foraminous withopenings too small to permit passage of the material to be treated;means exterior of said imperforate portion to heat the imperforate Wall;means to supply a current of air at atmospheric temperature to theexterior of said foraminous portion to pass free- 1y through material incontact therewith; means to sweep material from said" imperforateportion to" said foraminous portion; inlet means to feed material to bedried to said container adjacent one end thereof; and outlet means topermit escapeot treated material adjacent the remaining end of thecontainer.

DONALD L. SDVION.

References Cited. in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTSNumber Name Date 14,588 Appleby Apr.. 8, 1856 363,933 W'orrelI May 31,1887 1,132,422 Anderson Mar. 16, 1915 1,795,302 Forrest 1 Mar. 10, 19312,067,506, Silva Jan. 12', 1937 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date17,671 Great Britain July 25, 1912 of 1911

